A Grand Rapids artist and educator, Amenta was the go-to guy when it came to resurrecting the old Grand Rapids Public Museum building at 54 Jefferson Ave. SE.

As curator and project director of the upcoming student and faculty art exhibition "Michigan - Land of Riches: Re-examining the Old Grand Rapids Public Museum," Amenta invited about 200 students, faculty and alumni from area schools and art institutions to join him in using art to breath new life into some of the old museum's outdated and decaying gallery and exhibition spaces, most of which hadn't been touched for at least 15 years.

"It's a unique collaboration between the museum and 30 departments from six universities and colleges," Amenta said. "We're focusing on the (museum) collection and working to activate the display cases."

As co-founder and former director of Activesite (the Grand Rapids-based organization that aims to promote downtown development by exhibiting artwork in buildings undergoing rehabilitation), Amenta is no stranger to displaying art in non-traditional gallery spaces. After considering more than 150 site-specific proposals from individuals and groups, Amenta made final decisions based on which ideas best engaged the space available.

"There's painting, sculpture, ceramics, metals, jewelry, photos, printmaking, video and more - the gamut of contemporary art practices," said Amenta, a graduate of Grand Valley State University who teaches in the Sculpture Department at Kendall College of Art and Design.

Representatives from Aquinas College, Calvin College, Grand Valley State University, Hope College, Kendall College of Art and Design and the University of Michigan designed visual and interactive projects to invigorate 13 gallery and exhibition spaces, the laboratory and offices that occupy the two-story building left vacant in 1994 when the Public Museum relocated to Pearl Street. Young artists from the Urban Institute for Contemporary Arts' Artworks program also participated.

Highlights of the show, according to Amenta and other Museum staff, include an 80-foot whale made of Kitakata Japanese paper constructed by Kendall Professor Mariel Versluis and her printmaking students, a UFO sculpture exhibit featuring scale models of crash sites, fragments of extraterrestrial spacecraft, photographs of UFOs and eye-witness accounts by Hope College professor Billy Mayer and his students, and a re-interpretation of the museum's "Body Worlds Exhibition" showcasing works by University of Michigan professor Kerstin Barnedt and one of her students.

The exhibition also includes dozens of works revolving around pieces from the museum's collection of nearly 250,000 items. Artists had access to most of the 155-year-old collection, which includes anything from automobiles and animals, to gemstones, furniture and fossils.

"We had this unprecedented access to specimens and artifacts," said Amenta, who said the exhibit title and concept stem from an old map of the same name charting the state's natural resources and hanging just inside the old museum's entrance.

Replicas of some of the artwork, bumper stickers, T-shirts and other souvenirs will be available inside the renovated "Gift Shop."

"Michigan - Land of Riches" is the Public Museum's first attempt at determining a future identity for the 54 Jefferson site, said Museum Director of Collections and Preservation Marilyn Merdzinski.

"We're trying to develop this area into a place the public can come and see things from our collection," she said. "We want to give the community greater access to our collection, open it up to them. We're also looking to get some feedback from the community about how we can share what we have, because we have so much to offer."

Museum officials hope this exhibition is the first of many such collaborative opportunities, Merdzinski said.

"When the exhibit closes, we'll evaluate 'What did we learn from this?' and work to finalize plans with the community's input," she said. "We don't know what's next and we don't know what our final decision will be, but we're hoping to shake things up, do things differently - not the typical museum stuff we've done in the past."

An opening reception Friday also kicks off a month of related activities, including a Family Education Day, a Thursday Brown Bag Lunch Series and an exhibit-inspired fashion show. It also coincides with the eighth annual "Art. Downtown." event, showcasing nearly 300 artists at 25 downtown locations.